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ADDRESS 


BY 


aj.JohnW.Moore, 


DELIVERED    AT 


OAKWOOD  CEMETERY,  MAY  lOTH,  1881, 


BY    REQUEST    OF    THE 


Ladies'  Memorial  Association 


OF 


North    Carolina. 


RALEIGH  : 
Edwards.  Bkoughton  &  Co.,  Peinters  and  Binders, 

1881. 


of  tt^r 

crsitp  of  JBcrt!)  Q 


tttion  ot  i^ort^  Ca 

1^1    SLjA* 


ADDRESS 


BY 


Maj.  John  W.Moore, 


DELIVERED    AT 


OAKWOOD  CEMETERY,  MAY  lOTH, 


BY    REQUEST    OF    THE 


Ladies'  Memorial  Association 


OF 


North    Carolina. 


RALEIGH  : 

Edwards,  Brougiiton  &  Co.,  Printers  and  Binders, 
1881. 


^  ■ 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2010  witii  funding  from 

University  of  Nortii  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hil 


fe 


http://www.archive.org/details/addressdeliveredOOmoor 


ADDRESS. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

AVe  have  gathered  here  in  this  quiet  city  of  the  dead  to 
recall  the  images  of  our  loved  and  lost.  We  do  not  come 
in  sack-cloth  and  ashes  as  badges  of  our  woe — we  do  not  lie 
down  in  despair  to  utter  lamentations  over  broken  idols — 
but,  in  the  plentitude  of  an  ancient  sorrow,  we  are  here  to 
mark  the  return  of  the  most  sacred  day  in  all  our  secular 
calendar.  Once  again  we  adorn  the  graves  and  garland  the 
memories  of  our  Confederate  dead.  Heaven  smiles  upon 
our  purpose — for  the  sunlight  is  glorious  and  only  gentlest 
breezes  blow  upon  this  throng  engaged  in  the  discharge  of 
a  high  and  holy  duty.  No  human  emotion  is  nobler  than 
gratitude.  Frail  humanity  never  assumes  an  aspect  more 
pleasing  to  the  angels  than  when  benefits  conferred  are  re- 
membered. Add  to  this  that  our  benefactors  can  no  longer 
recognize  our  thanksgiving,  and  this  day's  pageantry  be- 
comes sublime  in  the  height  and  purity  of  its  prompiings. 
We  renew  our  tokens  of  love  to  those  \vho  once  loved  us  ; 
and  feel  assured  that  no  words  of  ours  will  be  misconstrued 
by  the  men  we  honor — for  flattery  is  never  addressed  to  the 
dull,  cold  ears  of  death. 

Alas,  iny  friends  !  how  empty  and  tame  are  all  our  words 
!  in  the  face  of  these  imposing  symbolisms  of  our  grief?  The 
bolemn  procession,  this  great  gathering  of  our  people,  these 
wailing  dirges  for  the  dead,  and  above  all,  these  garlanded 
graves,  are  so  full  of  majesty  and  pathos,  that  they  dw^arf 
into  insignificance  all  the  resources  of  mere  rhetoric.  How 
can  we,  who  knew  and  loved  these  dead  men  find  words  to 
portray  their  worth  or  our  appreciation  of  their  service  ? 
How  are  we  to  rise  to  the  height  of  so  noble  an  argument 


fis  is  implied  in  such  an  eulo;j,-iuni   as   they   deserve  ?       We 
can  only  bring  the  tribute  of  our   thanks   and   tears;  and 
with  faltering  utterance  repeat  the  story  of  how  they  fought 
and  died  for  us.     It  was  said  l)y  tb.e  .'-^aviour  of  the  world 
that  "greater  love  hath  no  man  than    this,   that  a  man  lay 
down  his  life  for   his   friend."      So,  also,   it   is  true  that  he 
who  loves  a  cause  well  enough  to  die  in  its  defence  hallows 
it  by  his  blood,  and  in  the  nobility  of  the  sacrifice  precludes 
the  possibility  of  unworthy    imputation   upon  his  motives. 
Here,  my  countrymen  are  the  tombs  of  our  martyrs.     Here, 
in  the  long  silence  of  eternity,  rest  the  stilled  hearts  that 
were  once  the  pride  and  buhvark   of  our   people.     Give  all 
your  reverence  to  this  solemn  ])i-esence,  and  rem^'mber  that 
we  this  day  tread  on  holy  ground.      It   holds  the  ashes  of 
heroes!      It  is   a   shrine   whereon    we  may  well  crucify  all 
that  is  base  in  our  natures,  and,  inspired  by  such  exemplars, 
rise  to  higher  things.     Alas  I  all  that   we   have  left  of  these 
dauntless  defenders  of  our  soil  is  now  but  handfuUs  of  dust, 
hidden  forever  from  our  sight. 

Tlie  buo'le's  call  no  more  tlioy  hear  ; 
The  drums  are  silent  on  each  ear  ; 
They  raouliler  from  us  year  by  year. 

The  wlltl  llower  blooms  upon  their  graves  ; 
The  robin  chants  his  sweetest  staves  ; 
The  green  grass  softly  o'er  them  waves. 

The  lily  droops  its  pensive  head; 
The  hawk  sails  silent  far  o'erhead  ; 
And  thej'  sleep  on  long  dumb  and  dead. 

It  cannot  be  they  died  in  vain, 

Or  fruitless  all  their  toil  and  pain — 

The  martyr's  blood  must  have  its  gain. 

A  purpose  deep  was  in  their  loss  ; 
No  storm  in  vain  the  waves  shall  toss- 
God  lifts  us  by  each  heavy  cross. 

As  richer  grows  the  pruned  tree — 

So  nobler  new  liumanitj' 

Is  born  of  blood  shed  full  and  free. 


(5) 

We  this  day  renew  our  testimony  to  the  world,  that  hips- 
ing  years  are  j^owerless  to  erase  from  the  tal)lets  of  our  hearts 
the  rnemor}'  of  the  men  who  sleep  beneath  these  mounds. 
In  all  the  blood  and  upheaval  of  the   two    last  decades  we 
are  still  mindful  of  those  we  saw  depart  so  long  ago  as  they 
went  forward  to  do  battle  in  our  behalf.     We  do  not  claim 
that  they  were  demigods  like  those  warriors  on   the  windy 
plains  of  Troy  of  whom  Homer  sung  ;  these  friends  of  ours 
could  not,  on  the  perilous  edge  of  battle,  call  down  aid  from 
Olympic  courts.     They  were  only  plain  American  citizens, 
who,  of  their  own  accord,  left  all  the  endearments  of  home 
at  the  call  of  duty.      They  W'Cre  the  flower  of  our  gay  and 
gallant  3'outh,  who  in  all  patience  endured  the  horrors  of  a 
long  and  mortal  struggle.     They  were  soldiers  wdio  held  at 
bay  through  years  of  blood  and   toil   vast  hordes  gathered 
from  many  lands.     They  were  a  wall  of  defence  against  in- 
vaders seeking  to  desecrate  our  altars.     It  seemed  to  specta- 
tors, who  observed  from  every  portion  of  the  civilized  world, 
that  these  Confederates  were   to  reverse  military  maxims 
concerning  heavier  battalions  and  superior  resources.    Time 
and  again  the  great  hosts  sent  against  them  went  back  from 
their  front  in  terrified  rout.      They   seemed  for  four  years 
as  unconquerable  as  Co3sar's  legions  or  the  Spanish  infantry 
of  the  sixteenth  century.     After  a  hundred  battles  they  were 
still  like  some  rock  in  the  sea  which  has  endured  through 
unimagined  ages  the  assaults  of  wind  and  wave  ;  thus  worn 
down  by  attrition,  when  countless  foes  drove  them  to  the 
wall  there  was  nothing  left  but  the  grim  and  scarred  skele- 
ton of  an  army  that  had  grown  forever  immortal. 

So  it  is,  that  with  all  our  regret  for  the  fate  of  these  sleep- 
ers, we  can  yet  mingle  thanks  to  God  that  they  died  so 
bravely.  If  it  is  sad  to  recall  the  ruin  of  their  cause,  there 
is  still  unspeakable  consolation  in  the  epic  of  their  glory. 
In  the  lapse  of  time  gentler  thoughts  have  come  to  both 
parties  in  the  great  controversy.  They  who  love  these  dead 
Confederates  best  have  no  desire  to  sullv  the  wreaths  that 


G) 


adorn  the  victorious  brows  of  their  adversaries  ;  the}'  can 
see  now  that  pati'iotisin  and  honor  actuated  the  folhjwers  of 
both  the  hostile  Hags.  In  tlie  providence  of  God  we  are 
again  countryuien  alL  The  liour  is  fast  approaching  when 
honor  will  Ije  accorded  without  stint  alike  to  the  wearers  of 
the  gray  and  blue.  To  the  great  heart  of  America  the 
graves  of  her  slain  sons  are  all  equally  dear  ;  they  are  the 
joint  inheritance  of  an  imperial  race,  and  will  uver  be  the 
proudest  monuments  (jf  the  patriotism  of  our  people. 

There  can  be  no  sweeter  savor  to  heaven  than  a  patriots 
blood.  All  ages  and  climes  hold  deai  the  memories  of  men 
wlio  surrendi-r  life  for  the  public  good.  Tlie  tall  ujonu- 
nient,  the  tuneful  lay  and  the  glowing  pages  of  history  unite 
irj  homage  to  that  grandeur  of  soul  which  can  face  death  in 
the  discharge  of  duty. 

"It  is  not  all  of  life  to  live,  nor  all  of  death  to  die." 

We  may  shudder  with  apin-ehension  at  the  thought  of  a 
change  so  full  of  unknown  contingencies  ;  but  many  souls 
are  too  strong  to  falter  at  the  expense  of  honor  and  self-a})- 
[)roval.  Of  such  stuff,  my  countryman,  were  these  dead 
Confederates.  A\'here  else  in  all  the  world  have  others  been 
found  more  entitled  to  the  gratitude  and  reverence  of  their 
compatriots.  Their  aims  were  noble;  they  sought  only  the 
defence  of  their  homes  ;  they  waged  no  war  of  aggression  ; 
they  were  not  mercenaries  expending  their  blood  in  anoth- 
er's ciuarrel.  They  were  just  and  niagnaninious  ;  they  were 
so  bravely  patient  that,  amid  the  sorest  privations,  they, 
through  heroic  years,  endured  all  the  attacks  of  n:ieii  out- 
numbering them  four-fold.  They  not  only  held  the  field 
against  a  majority  of  their  own  countrymen,  but  the  levies 
and  resources  gathered  from  many  lands.  With  their  sea- 
ports closed  in  blockade  and  the  world  sending  men  and 
munitions  to  their  foes,  these  dead  Confederates  not  only 
bravely  took  up  the  wager  of  battle,  but  for  four  years  bore 
their  part  in  a  struggle  that  filled  all  Christendom  with  its 
resonance. 


(7) 

Tims,  my  hearers,  we  can  afford  to  dry  our  tears  and 
thank  lieavcn  we  are  the  friends,  kinsmen  and  survivors  of 
such  soldiers.  We  clieerisli  their  memories  as  the  most 
precious  legacy  of  the  past,  and  earnestly  desire  that  our 
children  and  posterity  should  continue  this  homage  to  our 
dead.  We  are  not  content  to  leave  their  names  to  the  cold 
keeping  of  monumental  inscriptions.  It  is  not  enough  that 
history,  with  her  solemn  vindication,  will  embalm  their 
i-ecord.  Let  us,  in  hymn  and  elegy — in  oration  and  epic, 
with  all  the  added  pomp  of  pageant  and  festival — keep 
green  in  Southern  hearts  the  memory  of  men  who  were 
thus  faithful  unto  death. 

In  the  sum  of  human  endowments  there  is  no  higher  gift 
than  the  facult\'  which  makes  us  capable  of  appreciating 
the  virtues  of  others.  We  rise  to  our  highest  level  when 
glowing  with  pride  and  satisfaction  in  the  contemplation  of 
deeds  done  in  long  vanished  centuries.  The  soul  that  is 
fired  with  emulous  admiration  in  the  perusal  of  Plutarch  is 
on  the  high  road  to  honor  and  usefulness,  Horatius  upon 
the  bridge  of  death,  Leonidas  and  his  Spartans  at  Thermo- 
pyla?,  and  the  French  guardsmen  at  Waterloo,  are  as  potent 
to-day  as  when  men  first  wept  for  joy  at  the  thought  of  such 
heroism.  Martin  Luther  at  Worms,  as  he  stood  unmoved 
amid  so  many  of  the  world's  frowning  potentates,  the  dying 
Sir  Philip  Sidney,  and  the  majestic  figure  of  our  own  Wash- 
ington "  moulded  in  colossal  calm,"  still  "rule  our  spirits 
from  their  urns."  The  world  is  wiser  and  better  for  the  ex- 
ample of  such  men.  They  are  as  necessary  for  human  pro- 
gress as  the  benefactors  who  have  given  to  our  use  the  railway, 
the  steamship  and  the  throbbing  pulses  of  the  electric  tele- 
graph. Weshalleverbeanoblerandmoregenerouspeople  in 
the  recollection  of  these  dead  Confederates.  It  will  never  be 
forgotten  how  gladly  they  went  down  to  the  carnival  of 
death.  It  seems  but  yesterday  that  they  were  streaming 
through  this  city  on  their  way  to  Manassas  and  York- 
town.     Their  blood  has  scarcely  yet  been   washed  out  from 


(S) 

the  soil  of  the  battle-fiehls.  They  are,  dear  friends,  as  pal- 
pable to  me  as  when  luminous  with  the  glory  of  Chancel- 
lorsville  or  sublime  in  their  failure  at  Gettysburg. 

It  is  Avell,  then,  for  us  to  be  here  today  !  It  is  our  sacred 
duty  to  instruct  our  children  as  to  the  causes  that  led  these 
men  from  their  homes  down  into  the  valley  of  death.  To 
the  innocent  soul  that  at  this  late  day  enquires  what  in- 
iluccd  these  dead  Confederates  to  take  up  arms,  we  have  only 
to  say,  that  they  were  the  exponents  of  a  passionate  and  per- 
vading determination  of  a  free  people  to  defend  and  assure 
their  threatened  autonomy.  They  drew  swords  as  the  last 
argument  against  men  who,  they  believed  were  pushing 
them  to  thraldom.  These  descendants  and  inheritors  of  the 
fathers  who  had  achieved  liberty  and  independence  for 
America  were  resolved  that  the  comjtact  made  in  17S7 
should  not  be  construed  either  to  their  injury  or  dishonor. 
They  were  unwilling  that  others  should  thrust  themselves 
into  control  of  our  domestic  concerns.  They  could  not 
abide  the  thought  that  they,  who  were  at  best  only  allies, 
should  repeat  the  Athenian  habit  of  altering  alliance  to 
hegemony  and  that  into  empire.  These  dead  Confederates 
knew  that  the  slogan  of  slavery  was  at  best  a  subterfuge. 
They  well  understood  how  that  was  to  be  an  excuse  for  as- 
suming control  of  Southern  lives  and  fortunes.  It  was  not 
hidden  from  them  that  the  accomplishment  of  African 
emancipation  would  not  suspend  the  incursions  of  men, 
who  had  resolved  that  all  the  States  should  conform  to  the 
Boston  decrees.  It  was  to  preserve  the  great  American  idea 
of  free  and  equal  commonwealths  that  these  dead  friends  of 
ours  sought  to  establish  a  government  that  would  for  ages 
transmit  such  a  public  blessing.  They  feared  to  consort 
longer  with  men  who  had  pronounced  the  great  compact  "a 
league  with  death  and  a  covenant  with  hell."  The  slow 
torture  of  years  of  insult  and  recrimination  culminated  in 
the  election  of  1860.  The  authorities  at  Washington  would 
listen  to  no  terms  but  those  of  submission.     A  roar  of  artil- 


(9 


lery  was  heard  in  Charleston  harbor  ;  the  starry  bunting 
went  down,  and  then  the  dance  of  death  began.  These  men 
asleep  around  us  were  tilling  peaceful  fields,  but  the  sound 
of  coming  invasion  was  in  the  air  : 

The.y  drew  their  swords  and  wielded  tliem 

'Till  sliattered  in  tlieir  ijrasp  ; 
A  belt  of  blood  from  sea  to  sea 

The  wliole  broad  land  did  clasp  : 
Let  others  tell  of  what  tliey  did, 

The  tale  will  never  die — 
How  miffhty  hosts  j^rew  pale  and  lied 

Before  their  battle-cry. 

How  they  toiled  and  died  during  the  war  is  too  sad  to  be 
here  recounted.  Like  King  Francis  at  Pavia  they  lost  every 
thing  but  honor.  Now  to  their  children  and  surviving  com  - 
rades  no  guerdon  remains  but  the  stern  retributions  of 
time.  But  let  no  man  dream  they  died  in  vain.  As  the 
blood  of  the  martyr  is  the  seed  of  the  church,  so  can  no 
noble  and  costly  sacrifice  be  lost  to  the  world.  We  are 
richer  in  our  ruined  homesteads  and  trampled  fields  than 
if  the  demon  of  strife  had  never  wasted  our  high  places. 
The  scarred  and  desolate  battle  grounds  have  become  Mara- 
thons and  Runnymedes  to  mankind.  They  are  a  prouder 
heritage  than  boundless  plains  crowded  with  cities  and 
seamed  with  the  mighty  high-ways  of  traflBc. 

It  cannot  be  forgotten  by  us  or  the  generations  of  the 
future  what  manner  of  females  were  the  friends  and  con- 
sorts of  these  dead  Confederates.  It  was  not  alone  by  sol- 
diers on  the  field  of  battle  that  heroism  was  displayed.  In 
those  sad  and  stormy  years  there  were  in  all  parts  of  the 
South  multitudes  of  pure  and  tender  hearts  that  went  out 
in  anguish  to  the  suffering  men  of  our  armies.  The  sentry 
as  he  walked  his  lonely  beat  well  knew  far  away  at  home 
were  white  hands  lifted  in  prayer  for  his  safety  and  return. 
It  could  not  be  that  such  fair  and  delicate  beings  should 
head  the  charging  squadrons,  but  when  the  roar  of  conflict 


10 


would  coaso  and  the  stricken  field  lay  thick  with  the  fiower 
of  our    youth,  pallid  and    helpless  atnid    the   dead  and   the 
dying,  what   ang'els  of    mercy   seemed    the   radiant  beings 
that  crowded  to  the   reeking   hosi>itals.     Who  but  God  will 
evci"  know  the   height   and    depth   of  their   devotion  to  the 
cause  they  loved?     What  agony  of  suspense   was  theirs,  as 
they  listened    from  afar  with  ever  increasing  dread  of  the 
fatal  news  that  at  last  told   how  these   men  around  us  were 
<lain.     Where  else  in  the  tide  of  time  has  been  seen  sucli 
sul)lime  fortitude — as  without  complaint  every  thing   dear 
and  valual>le  to  them  was  surrendered  to  the  l:>eloved  cause? 
They  clung  to  it  when  the  manliest  hearts  had  grown  des- 
perate and    when  tlie  last  battle  flag    had   been  furled  and 
the  broken  remnant  of  the  van([uished  went  back  to  their 
homes;  who  will  ever  forget    how   true  to  the  ruined  cause 
were  still   these  beautiful  and  matchless  Southern  women? 
It  cannot  be  that  the  lessons  of  the  war  will -be  lost  upon 
the  American  people.     Providence  will  never  permit  such 
seas  of  blood  to  have  been  shed  in  vain.     Our  martyrs  have 
shown   us  that   the  most  enduring  benefits  are  not  won  in 
strugiiles   for  self  advancement.     If   we  have   drained  the 
chalice  of  woe,  it  has  made  possil)le  a  grander  future.     Let 
us  widen  the  skirts  of  our  humanity  as  the  best  commen- 
tary in  our  })ower  upon  the  sei'vices  of  our  dead.     As  a  soft 
answer    avertcth    wrath,    so    is    an   ancient    malignity  dis- 
armed   in  tlie    face   of   concession.     Let   us    cherish    these 
graves  but  let  us  also  realize  the  significance  of  the  living 
present.     The  .spirit  that  feels  an  imputation  like  a  wound 
despises  a  lasting  resentment.     The  weakling  and  the  cow- 
ard may  brood   over  injuries,  but  'the  bravest  are  the  ten- 
derest,"  as  they  also  are  the  ujost  forgiving.     Julius  Cajsar 
could  out-face  the  world  in  arms  but  could  also  weep  like  a 
woman  over  the  death  of  betrayed  Pompey.     Nothing  is  so 
irresistible  as  good  will.     It  transfigures  the  human  face 
and   beams  from  the  eye  with  a  light  beautiful  enough   to 
stream  out  from  the  windows  of  heaven.     Whatever  it  may 


(11) 

please  others  to  do,  let  us  of  the  South  be  true  to  God,  to 
these  dead  men  and  to  ourselves.  Let  us  lift  our  hands  in 
prayer  that  peace  and  love  may  again  rule  in  our  councils. 

Amei'ical  last  birth  of  time — 

How  groat  tlij'  mission  none  maj-  tell, 
Upon  thy  stately  argosies 

The  stars  of  hope  beam  strong  and  well ; 
Oh!  land  oft  washed  in  freedom's  blood 

And  born  of  travail  long  and  sore, 
God  help  us  keep  thee  on  the  course 

Our  fathers  marked  in  days  of  yore. 

And  now,  dear  friends,  it  but  remains  for  us  to  strew 
flowers  upon  the  resting  places  of  our  dead.  Alas !  much 
of  our  hearts  is  buried  in  these  graves  with  them.  I  am 
satisfied  that  God  keeps  and  blesses  these  martyrs  to  duty. 
After  life's  fitful  fever  they  sleep  so  well  we  have  nothing 
left  but  to  give  them  our  thanks  and  tears.  "  Such  a  sleep 
the}^  sleep,  these  men  we  loved,"  we  may  well  leave  them  to 
heaven  and  the  high  keeping  of  history.  In  the  temple  of 
renown  they  fill  niches  so  high  that  they  are  safe  in  all 
contingencies.  They  rest  in  an  immortality  of  fulfilled 
duty.  We  may  be  troubled  by  party  feuds  and  winter's 
cold  but  they  are  as  deaf  to  human  strife  as  to  the  wars  of 
the  elements.  We  may  be  surfeited  with  success  or  broken- 
hearted in  the  stress  (>f  some  great  calamity,  but  these  he- 
roes slumber  on  forever  undisturbed. 

"  On  Fame's  eternal  camping  grounds 
Their  silent  tents  are  spread. 
And  glory  guards  with  solemn  round 
The  bivouack  of  the  dead." 


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^^^^^^m^^mmmiWMi^^ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C,  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032758454 


FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
HE  NC^RTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


